Magical Contracts
by Kalen Darkmoon
Summary: In Goblet of Fire, JKR established that it was absurdly easy to bind other witches and wizards unwillingly into binding magical contracts with a simple, school-taught 'confundus' charm. What if Harry took note of that and decided to do something about it?


**Magical Contracts**

by Kalen Darkmoon

Summary: In Goblet of Fire, JKR established that it was absurdly easy to bind other witches and wizards unwillingly into binding magical contracts with a simple school-taught confundus charm. So, what if Harry took note of that and decided to do something about it himself?

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the the world of Harry Potter. JKR botched it up all on her own. I am merely playing in her plot-holes.;-)

--

The day after Harry's name burst forth from the Goblet of Fire...

Harry just couldn't believe it. How was this possible? Despite his objections he was now bound unwillingly by a magical contract that he in no way agreed to. A contract that compels him to compete in a historically deadly tournament. Even Dumbledore had told him that he had no choice and was bound to compete. What was it that Moody had said? A _confundus_ charm was used to trick the Goblet. Well, if a simple _confundus_ worked on a supposedly powerful ancient magical artifact against him then surely such a concept could be used against others as well. Granted he said it had to be someone powerful to 'confund' an artifact like the Goblet of Fire but what if he didn't need to use such a powerful artifact? After all, witches and wizards used magical contracts in every day business dealings as well.

--

Harry sat back with a wide grin on his face as he perused the magical contract he had drawn up on specially enchanted contract parchment that Hedwig just returned with from Hogsmeade. He wondered if it could truly be that easy. After thinking it over he decided to keep the contract short, simple and to the point...

_I, the undersigned, swear upon my magic that I have never and will never, knowingly, intentionally and of my own free will, kill or inflict serious harm upon another being except in direct defense of self or another when no other action is believed possible._

_Signed,_

Harry grinned at this point as he dipped his quill in the special enchanted contract ink and waved his wand while casting a '_confundus_' upon the parchment. If this worked, then if those people whose names he signs had ever or will ever intentionally kill or hurt an innocent person, they would instantly become squibs. Now for the first name...

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_

Upon lifting the quill from the parchment there was a bright flash as the contract seemingly activated. After but a few seconds the lettering morphed from black ink to the red of blood and the parchment began to glow increasingly brighter. Harry chuckled as he realized that it seemed to indeed be working and the evil git was in obvious violation of the contract. While he was glad he learned Voldemort's true name in the Chamber of Secrets at the end of second year, he had to wonder what it was with evil gits and the need to gloat anyway?

Suddenly names started appearing in blood beneath the signature - names of each and every innocent killed or harmed in violation of the contract. In addition, for each named, a separate parchment appeared beneath the contract with the details of each violation. As the list and stack of parchment grew Harry found himself becoming increasingly nauseous as the page seemed to fill with blood from the hundreds of names that came forth. He was forced to stifle a sob when first his father's, then his mother's names appeared followed by his own name and a few others. After the last name appeared, he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his scar for a few moments and could swear just for a moment that he heard an anguished scream seemingly inside his head. As a black mist was ejected from his scar and faded away, the edges of the contract blackened. He grinned viciously as it seemed to indeed work. A bit of poetic justice, if you will. It served the bastard right to become a squib.

He rubbed his scar for a moment wondering what that last bit was about and noticed that he could hardly feel it anymore. Setting his quill aside, he walked over to a mirror and was shocked to see his scar had almost completely faded. Oh, it was still there but rather than prominent and angry as it had been before it was now nothing more than a thin lightning bolt shaped white scar that had shrunk in even with the surface of his skin. He stared a moment longer as it began to really sink in that the contract did indeed appear to work! No small part of him was rather incredulous that nobody else ever thought to try something like this before whoever put his name in the Goblet. Really! It was rather absurd that if one can bind others in magical contracts so easily that nobody thought to use such a method to strip the magic from evil gits like Voldemort.

With a grin that would terrify even a hardened Slytherin, he went back to the table he was working at and grabbed another contract parchment from the stack. After he copied the previous contract and again cast a confundus charm on the parchment, he signed this one:

_Peter Pettigrew_

The contract flashed as it activated and the ink turned to blood as the contract judged the signed to be in violation. Again a list of violations (victims) are shown, this time showing not only his parents and himself but also Sirius and more than a dozen others. Gleefully he grabs the next parchment thinking it was now time for the slippery bastard that snuck the diary in during second year...

_Lucius Malfoy_

He was again sickened and not the least bit surprised as a long list of names appear in blood before the edges blacken and Lucius Malfoy is stripped of his magic. This went on well into the night as he made copies, confunded and signed the names of several Slytherin school-mates who spewed hate and/or threatened others in Harry's presence...

_Draco Malfoy_

_Theodore Nott_

_Vincent Crabbe_

_Gregory Goyle_

_Pansy Parkinson_

_Millicent Bulstrode_

_Marcus Flint_

Though he graduated the previous year, Harry tacked on the former Slytherin Quidditch Captain's name just on a hunch. Interestingly for each of the Slytherins, the contract only flashed and activated but none found the person to have been in violation - yet. Harry was a little suprised that even Malfoy had yet to seriously harm another. Perhaps there was hope for him despite how much of a nasty git he was.

After packing away the contracts he had thus far completed into his bag, he noted he was down to only a couple of sheets left. He wracked his brains as he tried to think of anyone else. Hmmm... There was the greasy git who had done nothing but take every opportunity to degrade and make him miserable at Hogwarts. Harry was almost certain he would be in violation and thought that the greasy git truly deserved this fate if he really did harm or kill anyone. Especially after the years of torment inflicted not only on himself but countless other students. With a flourish he signed the name,

_Severus Snape_

Again there was a flash as the contract activated and not entirely surprisingly the script became blood as the contract found him in violation. Harry shook his head. It was one thing to strongly believe something about someone but entirely different to see it confirmed. As he glanced at the names appearing in blood, Harry gasped and paled as he saw the names of his parents and himself appear upon the list of victims.

He shot out of his seat with a shout, "What in the bloody hell!?"

Oblivious to the stares of a few fellow students around him, he stood there staring stupefied at the contract. How was it that Snape was involved in the death of his parents and his being hurt!? Flipping to the parchment that listed the details of that violation he was sickened to learn that Snape had provided some sort of information about a prophecy that referred to his family and the Longbottoms being a threat to Voldemort with full knowledge that it would cause the Dark Lord to hunt and kill those families. The greasy bastard essentially was responsible for the Dark Lord targeting and killing his parents! With that thought a seed had been planted and a cold knot formed in the pit of Harry's stomach. Why did Dumbledore hire him? Why was he always defending him when he was so obviously cruel to students and seemed to take a particular interest in tormenting him?

Not entirely knowing quite why, he numbly sat down and on the last sheet of confunded parchment before him he signed the name,

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

But then again, at least subconciously he knew the old coot had to be up to something since he seemed to take a very particular interest in Harry's life and whereabouts at all times. In fact, a small part of him wondered if Dumbledore put him with the Dursleys fully aware of what they were doing to him. After all, he turned a blind eye to Harry's complaints about them in first year and said nothing about the Weasleys having to rescue him from a barred room at the beginning of his second year. Combine that with his ignoring of complaints about a man who was partially responsible for his parent's deaths, Harry's suspicions were fully inflamed. Little did he know how close to the truth he really was. Glancing down at the contract, he wasn't prepared to see the first victim's name to appear in blood...

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_

Harry was about to read the details regarding Tom Riddle but there weren't many names listed and he was momentarily shocked to see a Dumbledore on his list of victims as well. Yet nothing fully prepared him to again see his parent's names along with his own and Sirius as well. The old bastard somehow had a hand in his parent's deaths and did something to Sirius! Forgetting entirely about Tom Riddle for the moment, he quickly flipped to the parchment listing the violations surrounding his parents and himself and started reading.

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore instructed his spy in the Dark Lord Voldemort's ranks, Death Eater Severus Snape, to inform the Dark Lord Voldemort about a portion of a prophecy regarding a child being born with the power to defeat the Dark Lord as both a means to elevate Severus Snape's rank and a means to put the prophecy in motion. The prophecy in question designated Harry James Potter and Neville Longbottom as potential candidates with the ability to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's action led to Voldemort attacking the Potter family on October 31, 1981 the result of which designated Harry James Potter as the child the prophecy spoke of and resulted in the deaths of James Potter and Lily Evans Potter. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore acted with the knowledge that his actions would lead to the deaths of the elder Longbottoms and/or Potters and the belief that it would lead to the destruction of the Dark Lord Voldemort or the mutual destruction of the Dark Lord Voldemort and Harry James Potter or Neville Longbottom._

_Upon the survival of Harry James Potter, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore ordered and participated in the kidnapping of Harry James Potter from his legal and rightful guardian, Sirius Black, while placing him in the home of his mother's sister - Petunia Evans Dursley - with full knowledge of their intense hatred for all things magical. It was his belief that the Dursley family would ensure that Harry James Potter matured with a personality that would be easily pliable and subject to his later influence. Having cast the Fidelius charm himself that hid the Potter family, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was well aware of, and with intent, withheld all knowledge of the true Potter Secret Keeper - Peter Pettigrew - to ensure Sirius Black's eventual incarceration and inability to ever claim his rightful and legal guardianship over Harry James Potter. These actions caused for an innocent child, Harry James Potter, to be enslaved and treated with nothing but neglect and cruelty with the full knowledge thereof by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore through an informant, Arabella Figg, placed living nearby._

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore knowingly allowed a Dark Lord Voldemort possessed Quirrinus Quirrel to teach at Hogwarts with the intent of drawing a confrontation between the Dark Lord Voldemort and Harry James Potter by using the Philosopher's Stone as bait for both parties. Failing that, it was the belief of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore that year long close exposure between the Dark Lord Voldemort and Harry James Potter would strengthen the connection between them through the cursed scar upon Harry James Potter. It is of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's intent that encouraging the link between the Dark Lord Voldemort and Harry James Potter would later ease the eventual defeat of the Dark Lord Voldemort should the Dark Lord Voldemort prevail and sucessfully kill Harry James Potter._

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore knowingly allowed a Death Eater - Bartemius Crouch Jr - to impersonate Alastor Moody and force a binding magical contract upon Harry James Potter to participate in a deadly tournament. A tournament for which, historically, Harry James Potter is woefully under-educated and is clearly an attempt to bring harm or death upon his person._

A scream of pure rage erupted from Harry as the edges blackened upon the parchment. The entire castle rumbled as the wards shudder and shift control to another after her headmaster was violently stripped of his magic. The few students still awake and in the commons look at Harry in a mixture of awe and terror that his scream of rage seemed to shake the entire castle. They quickly flee to their rooms after he violently flips the table he was seated at and storms out the portrait tightly holding the Dumbledore and Snape contract parchments crushed in his left hand. To Hell with the fake Moody for now, there was an old squib who he wanted answers from... just before he killed the bastard with his own bare hands. After that there was a certain greasy haired squib that would also pay dearly for setting up his parents' deaths, _**this**_ Harry vowed upon _**his**_ magic.

--

A shocked school would learn the next morning that their beloved headmaster had fallen down a flight of stairs breaking his neck and killing him instantly as well as their not-so-beloved potions professor was a fatal victim of an exploding cauldron. A young Harry Potter briefly eyed a certain seemingly nervous Defense professor as he sat down for his breakfast. He only had to wait for Hedwig to return with a fresh order of contract parchment...

-- -- -- -- -- --

AN: Just a little one-shot that I pounded out last night that highlights a few of the many rather fatal plot holes in JKR's world of Harry Potter. In particular the binding of others in magical contracts with a simple confundus charm.

How about the much vaunted wards of the supposedly safest place in Britain? Name one Death Eater that was prevented from walking in or out of the front doors of Hogwarts at will. Snape, Pettigrew, Lucius Malfoy, Crouch Jr and even Voldemort himself waltzed in and out without difficulty. How about the junior Death Eaters?

Or how about an often completely overlooked detail by most in that, per canon, Dumbledore was the caster of the Potter's Fidelius and would have thus had full knowledge that Pettigrew was the real Secret Keeper rather than Sirius. In fact, Pettigrew's very presence in the Order was either knowingly allowed by Dumbledore or along with Quirrelmort and Crouch Jr.s infiltrations into Hogwarts it rendered not only Dumbledore's Leglimency skills suspect but more importantly the entire idea of a phoenix (in this case Fawkes) being able to judge the 'goodness' of a person as totally false.

Dumbledore was supposedly a Master Leglimens that supposedly nobody can ever successfully lie to and had a phoenix familiar that could supposedly sense whether someone is good or evil. BUT, yet, his twenty plus year long friend and ally Mad-Eye Moody was successfully replaced by a poly-juiced Death Eater for an entire school year in his close proximity (even meeting in his office with Fawkes RIGHT THERE) as well as Voldemort himself remained in close proximity for an entire year in a possessed Quirrel. This begs questions about Dumbledore's own "righteousness and good" as well then doesn't it? Fawkes obviously could NOT be relied upon as an indicator or was kept silent by Dumbledore in the face of such evils.

Some have pointed out that Harry would be susceptible to his own contracts or that he is somehow being hypocritical. I urge those people to read a little more closely. He caused no direct harm against anyone that wasn't a threat to him or someone else. Even Dumbledore and Snape were proven a threat as evidenced by the revelations in the contract breaches for them. Harry's targets were Death Eaters known by him (plus Snape), their hate-spewing children (who were innocent and thus NOT HARMED), Voldemort and Dumbledore. Every person actually "harmed" by Harry's contracts were those out to harm Harry, so he himself would (so far) be safe if one were used against him because it was self-defense.

Even if you wanted to argue Snape's and Dumbledore's deaths after having their magic stripped, I would point out that no-where did I explicitly state that Harry actually killed either Snape or Dumbledore. Both could have merely been accidents that happened from the shock of losing their magic and/or the castle shaking from the ward shift. ;-) Although, even if Harry has killed them, they both in fact remained a threat even as squibs and thus he would not run afoul of his own contracts. Snape could have remained a potions teacher even as a squib (remember, "no silly wand waving" needed) and thus retained access to Harry to continue to inflict harm upon him and other students. Dumbledore would have most likely been able to hide his loss of magic given his influence and Fawke's assistance - enough to remain in control of Harry's life and thus also remained a threat.

Long live fan-fiction.

P.S. If anyone wants to pick up and continue my other Harry Potter story, they are welcome to do so. I'm uncertain when I'll have time to continue it further though I do have parts of the next two chapters completed already. I kind of wrote myself into a corner on that one as I find it hard to believe that Hermione's parents would allow Hermione to return to Hogwarts in light of their newfound knowledge of all that has happened there already. A school with a number of different professors who kidnap, terrorize, torture, obliviate and/or attempt to kill students is a bit much for any parent to just overlook. I'm currently working out an angle where Harry and Hermione leave Britain entirely for a while. Especially after the Wizengamot shines through with its foolish arrogance...


End file.
